Tuesday, February 16, 2016

angst kindling

The sense that despite all rosy prognostications to the contrary the global financial picture is far from rosy got a boost this morning:

WASHINGTON
(AP) -- Eight years after the financial crisis, the world is coming
to grips with an unpleasant realization: serious weaknesses still plague the global economy, and emergency help may not be on the way.

Sinking
stock prices, flat inflation, and the bizarre phenomenon of negative
interest rates have coupled with a downturn in emerging markets to raise
worries that the economy is being stalked by threats that central banks
- the saviors during the crisis - may struggle to cope with.

Yup ... we're probably going to get screwed again by the people whose manicured education and lifestyle brought us the first "Great Recession" in 2008. The masters of sweet talk and bitter pills are not responsible, of course: Suck it up.

But, as if financial instability were not enough, a friend sent along this far more agitating thesis the other day: Finances are not the number one global catastrophe waiting in the wings. Water is.

When the World Economic Forum, a Swiss non-profit dedicated
to “improving the state of the world,” released its annual Global Risks Report
last year it cited “water crises” as the number one global risk in terms of impact. This is significant because for the past 8 years, the number one global
risk in terms of impact had been financial in nature (either asset price
collapse, fiscal crises, or major systemic financial failure), but 2015 was the
first year that saw a climate related issue top the list of risks....

According to the results of the Twente study, the water
scarcity crisis is significantly worse than previously assumed.

Since my body is at least 60 percent water and since water has a tendency to evaporate, the scarcity of water combined with the buying up of water resources (that's what a manicured education and lifestyle can encourage the buck-savvy to do) puts a high flame under my neurotic and forward-looking tea kettle.

It may be consoling and/or infuriating to think of families dying of dehydration, but generally, I suspect, it is my 60 percent that rules the politically-concerned roost when it comes to resources that might benefit something called "mankind."

My name is Adam Fisher. I live in Northampton, Mass., U.S.A. I have a wife and three children. This is my blog and consists of almost-daily postings -- sometimes (older) about the Zen Buddhism I have admired and practiced for something short of 50 years; sometimes about other 'spiritual' matters; and (more recently) about whatever strikes my fancy. Except to the extent that it might help others to consider what sort of fool they might prefer not to be, this blog does not aim to help anyone. Writing is an old and diminishing habit. It's what I do. Once upon a time, I built a zendo/meditation hall in the backyard here and invited people to come. The zendo is still there and my Dharma name is still "Genkaku" ("original realization" or "original understanding") but these days the formality of meditation has drained. Black Moon Zendo is still a good zendo, but I am 77 in 2017 ... creaky and disinclined. I honor those who make courageous journeys, but am hoist by my own observation that "Just because you are indispensable to the universe does not mean the universe needs your help." Best wishes to all. I can be contacted at genkakukigen@aol.com